A repository for the various things i consume in the course of daily existence

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Song 2 Bert and Ernie - I Refuse to Sing Along

This is a little weird I grant you, but it’s a song and so it counts. It was featured on a tape, the Bert and Ernie Sing Along no less that was released by Sesame Street in 1974. It was brought by my Dad at some point in the late 70's or early 80's and was a staple on the family car trip menu from then on.

I love this song, or rather I love singing this song. Its one of the bonds between me and my siblings is the experience of listening to this over and over again for most of the car trips of our youth, particularly the many to Albury and Melbourne to visit the grandparents. In fact, as I think about it, this song will always be linked with travelling along the Hume Highway with my family. I have not listened to the tape in close to 15 years but I still know all the words.

The summer before last my older brother brought the whole family (except my globally roaming sister) tickets to the stage show of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in Melbourne. The fact that we didn’t have the tape any more was no impediment to joyfully singing the whole album of songs on the way down the Hume. It might sound like a bit of a cliché that "the little things mean the most", but I don't think that’s what I am saying here. The relationship I have with my family is not a little thing, but it takes stupid little things like sesame street kids tapes to remind you of how big a thing it actually is.

3 Comments:

Love that album and i still have it on vinyl if you want a copy to relive those memories. It is full of such wonderful momnets as Telly driving the motobike into the Bathroom and the count getting stuck in the shower but continuously singing his song.

This is something that I also reminisce about. It's a great thing to have enjoyed as a kid. The memories live on forever.

I like the vastness of the bathroom -- the whole gang, a motorcycle, Oscar's trash can, and a marching band managed to fit in there. Poor Bert could not get his shivering self a towel. But the acoustics WERE great and a good time was had by all.

I thought this was a nice related site, too: http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/kayla_rudbek/ASAPSA01.html